I brought in a 200 ton Grove to hoist a 3 ton heat wheel onto roof so we could get it into the penthouse of the lab complex at this site.

I learned stuff.

Two of my best young up and comers are as thick as tree stumps when confronted with rigging gear. OK, I wasn't oblivious to that likelihood. Too often I have been made painfully aware of how little inate mechanical skills are present in most new blood.

The thing that tears me up is more from the common sense files.

The package was a 10'x10' box 2' 06" wide. That means that unless it was placed on flat ground on solid cribbing it could tip over in a moderate breeze. When we offloaded it, I had it set against a chainlink fence and secured it to the fenceposts. Even then, I cordoned the thing off. Snow under it, winter winds blowing, I still wanted a wide berth JIC.

So I look over the parapet from the fifth floor roof yesterday and what is my view? The knuckleheads had undone the comalong that restrained the unit to the fence. They were standing in the shadow of the thing discussing how to dress it out for hoisting.

The right approach of course was to set the rigging and take the slack out of the crane cable and then remove the restraint so that this thing had no opportunity to flatten them. Secondly, the time to discuss the hows and whys had long passed. We had covered the ground over and over. Third, if they were compelled to have a chat, was standing in the fall zone of a monolith the appropriate place for conversation? Sheesh.

These two are smarter than their counterparts and yet...

You wonder why pissing in a cup has become a benchmark for employment when probably a better test would be to put a flatiron in front of them ,tell them not to touch it and then leave them alone in the room with it. Come back a minute later. Multiple open third degree burns, DON"T HIRE THEM.